Economics and similar, for the sleep-deprived

A subtle change has been made to the comments links, so they no longer pop up. Does this in any way help with the problem about comments not appearing on permalinked posts, readers?

Update: seemingly not

Update: Oh yeah!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Book retailing news

This is getting ridiculous. I have now spotted the "Tragic lives" section (abused kid memoirs rather than things like "Michael Gove - My Achievements", as noted by ajay and Alex in comments), but as well as the "Dark Fantasy" section, there is now also a "Dark Romance" shelf. As far as one can tell, both "Dark Fantasy" and "Dark Romance" are for books about having it off with vampires, but it's not clear what the difference is - logic would suggest that one of the two categories is more explicit about the actual vampire-knobbing than the other one, but I feel like logic pretty much went out the window here (the window is also full of vampire sex books).

It's all so horribly undignified. Why can't we go back to the good old days of publishing, when bookshops stocked about a hundred practically identical books about having been a football hooligan in the 80s?

Update: Sam D, in comments, explains what the difference actually is, with the dispirited tone of one who has first hand knowledge.24 comments this item posted by the management 3/18/2010 01:48:00 AM